Texting pilot forgets to lower landing gear

Jetstar pilot texting150 metres off the ground, you’re ready to land but oops, no landing gear! This is the scenario that recently took place when two of Jetstar‘s pilots forgot to lower the gear and had to abort a landing in Singapore.

Apparently the captain (who had over 13,000 hours flying experience) became distracted by his bleeping phone somewhere between 2500 and 2000 feet and was trying to turn it off.

Jetstar’s 220-seat Airbus A320 issues began when the co-pilot switched off the autopilot to make preparations to land.

The captain’s mobile phone started beeping with incoming text messages, distracting the pilot and then seemingly rendering him deaf to the co-pilot’s requests. Continue reading Texting pilot forgets to lower landing gear

Transfercar Steps In As Virgin Cuts Gold Coast to Townsville Flights

Virgin AustraliaVirgin Australia has announced that it will be cutting direct flights between the Gold Coast and Townsville, with its main focus now being on high demand routes such as Melbourne and Sydney.

The Gold Coast to Townsville service has been under review for some time and revenue loss meant the flights had to be pulled, according to GoldCoast.com.au.

Virgin will now be looking at appointing two larger aircrafts that will have the capacity to carry a larger quantity of passengers from the Gold Coast to Sydney and Melbourne.

This could be a big blow to the rapidly developing mining hub in Townsville and surrounding areas, with a potential loss of business and opportunities for both cities and their economies.

Considered as a fly-in, fly-out destination, Townsville will feel the negative impact from anyone that was considering working in the area now the convenience of the direct flights between Townsville and the Coast will cease.

All is not lost though. Transfercar has agents relocating their vehicles to and from Townsville on a regular basis. This means our free to drive rental cars and campervans will come to good use to the working men and women who need access to the area.

If you want more information, please contact us on [email protected].

Or if you are just keen to get going, go ahead and register your interest at:

Transfercar.co.nz

Transfercar.com.au

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Happy free travelling!

Social Seating Is Not For All, But It Works For Some

Social SeatingAirlines have been experimenting with social seating recently, but how successful is it?

The idea that you could use social media to meet people while on a flight, seems to provoke extreme reactions, people either love the idea or hate it.

A number of airlines, like Lufthansa, Air France and Virgin Atlantic, have experimented with social media applications for their passengers in recent years, with some creating closed social networks for their frequent flyers, but the rapid technical development of the big social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn has enabled later adopters, like Malaysia Air and KLM to go a step further by offering customers who know each other or share similar interests, the chance to book seats next to each other.

Read the full article at travelllll.com

Australian airports test radiation free scanners

Good news for the health conscious and frequent travellers.  Airports in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, are running tests on scanners that emit no radiation.

The BBC has reported that unlike traditional scanners which emit X-rays and “active” radiation, the T8000, developed by UK-based ThruVision Systems, uses a “passive” screening technology.

ThruVision’s scanners do not “illuminate” people with X-rays, radiation or millimeter waves. Instead, they receive terahertz waves naturally produced by objects and people. When a concealed object blocks those waves, it appears as an anomaly.

The materials that can be detected by the T8000 include weapons, explosives, liquids, gels, ceramics and narcotics.

One other upside to this new technology is that it doesn’t capture or display intimate body details which have been a concern for many travellers in the past.

Other benefits include:

Rapid screening time

No need to enter into a small confined space

Although not permanently implemented yet, these scanners have had positive results; successfully spotting contraband substances on test subjects.

Bermuda is also using ThruVision while Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are considering implementing the new scanners.

If you don’t fancy air travel anyway then check out our FREE cars and campervans in New Zealand and Australia instead 🙂

Check out some of our other great articles:

Be smart when renting or relocating vehicles

The concept of getting from A to B

Ash cloud grounds 500 flights

Up to 500 services in and out of Britain were grounded yesterday as ash from Iceland’s Grimsvotn volcano threatens flight safety.

Norway and Denmark are also said to have witnessed disruptions in their operations, while German officials are preparing to shut down its airspace over northern Germany today as the cloud moves east over Scandinavia, Netherlands and northern Germany, Voice of American News reported.

Read the full article thanks to Travel Blackboard

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